1919 Article by Dr. Kunz on the Russian Crown Jewels

The Internet Archive has a June 1919 article describing the Crown Jewels of Russia in great detail. The article from Art & Life magazine, was released by JStor to the Internet Archive in an effort to make their public domain materials available broadly.

You can view, download, and print the article in a number of formats at https://archive.org/details/jstor-20543016

Kunz had rare photos of the Russian Crown Jewels

This week, the U.S. Geological Survey announced the discovery of a rare collection of photographs that had been a part of Mr. Kunz' personal library which is now a part of their collections. The album has a hand-painted frontpiece that is labeled as being from Moscow in 1922. The photographs document the Russian Crown Jewels and many of the images appeared in a 1925 official catalog of the Russian Crown Jewels. The USGS researchers identified 4 pieces of jewelry that are not included in the 1925 catalog and appear to have disappeared from the collection of jewels between their photography in 1922 and the publication of the official catalog in 1925.

The announcement includes a photo gallery as well as a 6:40 minute video podcast hosted on YouTube.

The librarians at the U.S. Geological Survey spent several months researching the album and its contents before making the announcement. They compared every one of the 81 photographs in Mr. Kunz' 1922 album to the published record about the Russian Crown Jewels. They found a record of one of the pieces in a publication from the year 2000 called "Selling Russia's Treasures" but the other 3 pieces have not been documented since this 1922 album.

This discovery supports the presumption that Dr. Kunz was an important figure in the scientific world of mineralogy and gemology.

Tiffany acknowledges Kunz role in cutting famous diamond

A recent notice about a famous diamond on display in Dubai highlights the role that George Frederick Kunz playing in having the diamond cut:

"The rough stone was brought to Paris, where Tiffany’s chief gemmologist, Dr George Frederick Kunz, supervised the cutting of the diamond into a cushion-shape brilliant with an unprecedented 82 facets – 24 more facets than the traditional 58-facet brilliant cut."

Kunz recognized for his influence on the jewelry trade

One of the largest international buyers of fine jewelry, Circa, lauds Kunz and his influence of the jewelry trade in advocating for semi-precious stones as a component of fine jewelry:

"Prior to Kunz’s tenure at Tiffany & Co, jewelry houses had favored precious stones in their jewels. He encouraged Tiffany to try new and exciting stones like Alexandrite and Morganite, making “semi-precious” stones more popular than ever. Kunz’s contributions to gemology and Tiffany & Co. have impacted the way that so many stones are viewed by the public. He brought semi-precious stones into the mainstream."